The chemical industry has urged the provincial governments of Punjab and Sindh to exempt chemical manufacturing units from Section-144, otherwise production of over 23 essential items including exportable products of textile, garments and leather industries would be stopped.
Pakistan Chemical Manufacturers Association (PCMA) Chairman Abrar Ahmad in a letter to the home secretaries of Punjab and Sind have said that chemical industry is contributing Rs35 billion in the form of taxes and US $12 billion in national GDP and it is also providing 400,000 jobs with an income multiplier of 4.2 and with job multiplies of 7.8.
He claimed that almost all the industries are dependent upon chemical industry for input chemicals to produce their products. He said the association has identified about 23 essential products which would not be produced if chemical industry does not resume operation to make input-chemicals for them.
These industries include food, pharma, soap, detergents, fertilizers, pesticides, construction, power plants, water treatment plants, export oriented industries like textile, garments, cotton gloves, allied fabrics knitted & woven dyed, home care, body care, health care, sanitizers, hand wash, shampoos, laundry soap, laundry detergent powders and leather industry.
Currently, chemical manufacturers have huge orders piled up from the forward linkage industries, but unfortunately the chemical industry has not been included in the industries whose operations are exempted from enforcement of Section 144.